Alexi Dimitriou is the head of competition law & trade at ADNOC Group, Abu Dhabi. He joined the firm in 2021. Prior to this, Alexei Dimitriou was a counsel in Ashurst’s competition practice. He practiced all aspects of UK and EU competition law with experience in dealing with the European Commission, UK regulators and antitrust authorities in other jurisdictions as well as appeals before courts.
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On 11 October 2020, Regulation (EU) 2019/452 establishing a framework for the screening of foreign direct investments into the Union (the "FDI Regulation") became fully applicable. In the 18 months since the FDI Regulation was enacted, the Regulation and the European Commission’s (...)
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On 5 October 2020, the EU’s General Court ("GC") upheld the European Commission’s ("Commission") decision to block the takeover of Cemex Croatia by DDC thereby dismissing the case brought by DDC’s parent companies, HeidelbergCement and Schwenk Zement ("Schwenk") claiming, inter alia, that the (...)
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On 29 September 2020, the European Commission ("Commission") announced that it has fined Brose and Kiekert a total of EUR 18 million for taking part in two cartels concerning supplies of closure systems for cars in the European Economic Area. Magna, a third cartelist, was not fined as it (...)
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On 8 September 2020, the European Commission ("Commission") published a working document (the "Evaluation Report") summarising the findings of the evaluation phase of the review of the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation ("VBER") and the Guidelines on Vertical Restraints ("Vertical (...)
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Lower notification thresholds under UK merger control for certain additional sectors impacting national security entered into force on 21 July. The lower thresholds now cover transactions related to the development, production, supply or research of: artificial intelligence (new) cryptographic (...)
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Sector inquiry launched into the Internet of Things On 16 July 2020, the European Commission ("Commission") launched an antitrust competition inquiry into the sector of Internet of Things ("IoT") for consumer-related products and services in the EU. The inquiry complements other actions (...)
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Fines for ethylene purchasing cartel On 14 July 2020, the European Commission ("Commission") fined ethylene purchasers Orbia, Clariant and Celanese EUR 260 million for having colluded and exchanged information on purchase prices on the ethylene merchant market with a fourth participant, (...)
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On 1 July 2020, the UK Competition & Markets Authority ("CMA") published its final report following a 12-month market study into online platforms and digital advertising in the UK (the "Final Report"). The Final Report concludes that, due to the dynamic nature of digital advertising, (...)
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Spire Healthcare, a private healthcare provider, and six consultant ophthalmologists have been fined for their roles in facilitating and arranging to fix the price of initial consultations between different consultants at a Spire hospital in the north of England. Whilst individual consultants (...)
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On 14 May 2020, the European Court of Justice (the "ECJ") partially quashed the General Court’s (the "GC") judgment upholding the European Commission’s ("Commission") power cables cartel decision with respect to NKT and its wholly owned subsidiary NKT Verwaltungs (together "NKT" or the (...)
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On 22 April 2020, the European Commission ("Commission") announced plans to adopt an exceptional derogation from the EU competition rules for the milk, flowers and potatoes sectors based on Article 222 of Regulation 1308/2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural (...)
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While some businesses may choose to delay transactions in light of Covid-19, many transactions will continue, in particular if the target is in financial distress. In such scenarios, the "failing firm defence" may be an available option for obtaining merger control clearance for transactions (...)
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On 8 April 2020, the European Commission ("Commission") published a Temporary Framework Communication ("Communication") to provide antitrust guidance to companies cooperating in response to urgent situations related to the Covid-19 outbreak. The Commission also announced that it issued a (...)
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On 2 April 2020, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") delivered its judgment in Budapest Bank on a reference for a preliminary ruling from Hungary’s highest court. The judgment confirms the important limitations that apply before competition authorities and courts are able classify (...)
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Whilst Covid-19 is not expected to lead to changes to the core legal and policy principles underpinning merger control regimes around the world, it is worth noting that: merger control regimes are still in operation, albeit filing processes and regulatory reviews may take a bit longer and some (...)
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The Court of Appeal on 5 March 2020 handed down a judgment upholding the ruling of the Competition Appeal Tribunal ("CAT") of July 2019 which found Network Rail had infringed the Chapter I and II prohibitions of the Competition Act 1998 by requiring, in its schemes governing suppliers’ access (...)
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On 4 March 2020, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") dismissed the appeal made by Norwegian seafood company Marine Harvest against a 2017 ruling of the General Court ("GC") confirming the European Commission ("Commission") 2014 decision fining Norwegian seafood company Marine Harvest for (...)
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On 30 January 2020 the European Commission ("Commission") fined NBCUniversal EUR 14,327,000 for restricting intellectual property licensees from selling licensed merchandise within the EEA to territories and customers beyond those allocated to them. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW - KEY TAKEAWAYS (...)
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On 22 January 2020, the Competition and Markets Authority (the "CMA") fined Fender Musical Instruments Europe Limited ("Fender Europe") GBP 4.5 million for engaging in illegal resale price maintenance ("RPM") in relation to the online sale of its guitars. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW - KEY TAKEWAYS (...)
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On 21 January 2020, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales handed down a judgment dismissing the appeal by Ping Europe Limited ("Ping") against a judgment of the Competition Appeal Tribunal ("CAT"), upholding the CMA’s 2017 decision that Ping’s online sales ban constituted a restriction of (...)
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AppNexus Europe Limited ("AppNexus") has been fined GBP 20,000 for failing to comply with an information request issued by the UK Competition and Markets Authority ("CMA"). The fine relates to an information request imposed by the CMA as part of its ongoing market study into online platforms (...)
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FP McCann Ltd, Stanton Bonna Concrete Ltd ("SBC") and CPM Group Ltd ("CPM") have collectively been fined more than £36 million by the Competition and Markets Authority ("CMA") for participating in an illegal cartel in relation to the supply of concrete drainage products. WHAT YOU NEED TO (...)
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On 12 December 2019, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") provided important clarification, holding that Article 101 TFEU must be interpreted as meaning that a public body which granted promotional loans to purchasers of products covered by a cartel are entitled to claim damages for loss (...)
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On 28 November 2019, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") handed down judgments in three appeals against General Court judgments that had dismissed actions challenging the European Commission’s ("Commission") power cables cartel decision. Leniency applicant ABB’s appeal was partially upheld, (...)
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On 14 November 2019, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") dismissed the appeal in case C-599/18 P brought by Silec Cable ("Silec"), which sought to set aside an earlier judgment by the General Court upholding the European Commission’s ("Commission") power cables decision. WHAT YOU NEED TO (...)
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On 27 September 2019, the European Commission ("Commission") fined Coroos and Groupe CECAB €31.65 million for participating in a canned vegetables cartel for over 13 years, with a third participant, Bonduelle, receiving full immunity for blowing the whistle. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW - KEY (...)
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On 18 June 2019, the UK government published a press release announcing ’tough new powers for the competition watchdog to fine businesses directly who have broken consumer law’. This follows a request from Lord Tyrie, Chair of the Competition and Markets Authority (’CMA’), for enhanced powers (...)
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Are you wondering what competition law in the UK might look like post-Brexit? The answer differs depending on whether the wording of the draft withdrawal agreement agreed between the UK government and European Commission (’Commission’) on 14 November 2018 (’Withdrawal Agreement’) is ultimately (...)
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Wondering what competition law in the UK might look like in a post-Brexit ’no deal’ scenario? On 13 September 2018, the UK government tried to shine some light on this area by publishing a technical notice on the provisions for merger control and competition enforcement if there is no Brexit (...)
